7:30 Malachi wakes up again and we get dressed and head downstairs. I put him in his highchair with toys so I can do a few chores.By the time I have the hysterical cat fed, water on the burner to boil for tea, and a load of laundry started he is getting cranky with highchair time.We move to the livingroom floor to fold towels. Mal likes to crawl towards the folded towels but he's still slow enough that I only have to pull him back twice. By the time I'm finished he's cranky with floor time as well so I try playing, nursing, rocking, and playing again to no avail.

8:30 Malachi is still fussing and now I'm cranky too. It's already to hot in the house to drink tea.

9:00 Mal is asleep on the couch.And I'm trying to restart my day. If you put ice in tea it becomes iced tea. I pray for patience and a good attitude. I start the AC and begin to clean up the kitchen a bit (Thursday is kitchen day). I make breakfast.

9:30 Breakfast is finished and I'm beginning to worry about Zeke. I go up to check on him and am greeted by a "Hi Momma! I woked up!" It was cheerful, despite this cranky picture.I dress him and we go down to eat breakfast together. Homemade apple juice (thanks Kaitie!) and scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. Malachi wakes up for a 3rd time and has a little bit of mashed banana.Part 2: The Afternoon

10:00 We clean up breakfast, pack a bag, and head to mindful mamas. Zeke doesn't want to go and runs away, but "super Zeke" is willing so Zeke puts on a fuchsia cape and then his shoes.Our speaker is Shelly Northern, a local midwife and she leads us in a discussion about birthing options in Spokane, the balance between respecting a woman's choices and protecting yourself in todays litigation society, and so much more. I love talking about birth. Mal nurses while we are there, and also tries to escape to the toy room a few times, but mostly he plays with toys next to me or sits in my lap. I take notes for the website. Zeke wanders back and forth from the toy room.12:00 It's time to come home but Zeke doesn't want to. Neither does Super Zeke. He also doesn't want to wear his shoes, doesn't want a snack in the car, isn't thirsty for water in the car, doesn't want to count trucks on the drive home, isn't hungry for lunch, isn't tired for his nap, doesn't want to be carried, doesn't want to walk, and doesn't want to come back next week. I'm out of ammo. Tantrum ensues.

12:30 The tantrum is over. Zeke puts on his shoes and walks with me to the car. He says he's "very sad" and I agree. I thank the heavens for Malachi because my arms being full is the only thing that kept me from just picking a kicking and flailing Ezekiel up and dragging him to the car. I absolutely hate physically dominating him like that but its soooo tempting.

Malachi falls asleep on the drive and transfers to his crib. Zeke yells "no nap!" and runs into the backyard but by the time I've put the baby down, my bag away, and my shoes off he's changed his mind and takes his nap as well.

I hang the laundry on the line to dry.Then I jump online. As soon as I'm finished checking my email and facebook Mal wakes up and I nurse him while I read my blogs. He falls back asleep on my chest and I read my daily chapter out of "Power of a Praying Parent". Its not quite as good as "Power of a Praying Wife", but that's ok, I've always found it easier to pray for the boys then for Josh anyways.

2:00 I watch Angel on Netflix while Mal naps on my chest.Im an avid fan of anything by Joss Whedon, no matter how terrible it is (I'm talking about you Doll House).

3:30 Zeke wakes up about halfway thru my second episode. Mal wakes up as well when he walks in the room. Zeke eats lunch (peanut butter on ritz and frozen grapes) outside (by his request) and naked (also his idea).Malachi gets crackers too, and I finish cleaning the kitchen.4:30 Zeke has moved on to the pool.Mal has moved on to my back.I am almost done cleaning and Josh calls to say that he will be home at 5:30 and are we up to going to the park for a picnic. I say "yes", and realize when I look at the clock that I better hurry up. So I finish sweeping and make the executive decision that the floor doesn't need to be mopped.

I bring the laundry in, fold it, and put it away.

Mal plays with rubber blocks.When we are finished Zeke wants to read "One Two Three!". I read it to him 3 or 4 times. I also try to nurse Mal while we are sitting there but he apparently believes this would be too convenient. Anyways, he wants to see the pictures.

I ask Zeke if he wants to go to the water park (aka splash pad) and he yells yes and runs upstairs. I go to my room with Malachi to change clothes.

Zeke starts screaming "mama" and running around frantically. He cant find me and assumes I have left him behind. I yell that I'm in my room and find that he's changed into his swim trunks and his sandals all by himself.I pack a picnic while Zeke jumps up and down yelling "yay yay yay yay yay!" and Mal fusses about being in his highchair.

Part 3: Daddy Saves the Day

5:30 Josh walks in the door and right before we all walk out Zeke yells that he has to go pee. He runs into the bathroom, takes of all his clothes, including shoes, and goes in the potty. The appropriate clapping and jelly-bean-giving ensue. I am relieved. I had forgotten that under those shorts there was no diaper.

We arrive at the park and Zeke runs off. He comes back from time to time for a bite.Mal is stuck with us on the blanket, but he doesnt seem to mind.Malachi and I are abandoned by Josh, who goes to swing Zeke. I start to wish I had brought a book. Mal is quite happy to pull at grass. And also to nurse.7:30 We go home to many tears, despite the promise of ice-cream. I say that homemade icecream is better the next day when its properly frozen. Josh disagrees and says its best the first day when its still soft-serve.I take a shower. Boys wrestle on the floor.

8:30 Bedtime for both the little ones. Josh takes Zeke and I take Mal.

9:00 Josh and I sit in the livingroom on our separate laptops. Its romantic ok?

Here in Spokane we are lucky to have just about the best growing community that you can think of. My family goes up to Greenbluff at least once a month June-October, and usually even more often. What can I say? We love fruit. Strawberries in June, Cherries and Raspberries in July, Peaches in August, Apples and Pears in September...The strawberries this year weren't the best, I have to admit. It was a wet spring, with quite a few late frosts.But the cherries...The cherries were amazing.Zeke collected quite a few in his bucket.Josh collected even more.Malachi and I most hung out in the shade.And then we hung out in the pea pit.Malachi likes the pea pit almost as much as Zekey.We even got to see some really nice animals.Unfortunately, as soon as I found a pie cherry tree my husband informed me they weren't quite ripe. I had really wanted a pie, and how a person can tell if a pie cherry is ripe is beyond me but no one knows fruit like Josh knows fruit so I believed him. Lo and behold when I asked about raspberries they told me neither them nor the pie cherries would be ready for another week and a half.

The first years of motherhood are often lived in the constant expectation of a peaceful moment. When the house is organized and clean, I will find peace. When I get more sleep, I will pray.

I've found, to survive, you have to learn the art of finding the small peace. The littlest moments of grace.

The art of motherhood.

"But women will be saved through the bearing of children," 1 Timothy 2:15

I misunderstood this verse for the longest time.

I get it now.

I thought it was about a price to pay.

It's not.

It's about receiving the opportunity to live for someone else.

And It's about learning to find peace, where there seems to be none, and finding that Peace has a name.

Its about plastic tub after plastic tub of clean clothes waiting to be folded, reminders to pray for the owner of each item. Laundry becomes 100 prayers in convenient piles. The inevitable breaks during every meal to help a child, become moments of fasting.

It's about finding the small ways of capturing the grace in the most common, the most humble.

We mothers, we become experts in finding that small and common grace, because often its the only peace we are offered. Where is the hidden grace in this moment? God is here, can you find Him?

Im sorry to everyone that has me on any sort of reader and is getting notification after notification that I've updated my blog. I am going back and labeling all my posts since mid 2009 when I stopped labeling posts so that I will be able to organize them by means other than time. Downside? Some readers see that as writing new posts. Upside? Soon I will have an easy way to look at backposts for myself, since this is kind of replacing any sort of scrapbook of our life until a time when I have the time to actually scrapbook (heh).

Anways, your regularly scheduled post.Our Spring harvest is pretty much over, I've picked the last of the spinach, ALMOST the last of the lettuce, and our peas and strawberries are definitely dwindling down. I couldn't be happier with how it went, though. The spinach and the lettuce did way better than I had imagined they would. We only planted 1 row (we have 6 foot rows) of each since I wasn't sure about their success and that fed us for a good 2 months, maybe more, I can't remember when I started harvesting it. It was so nice to be able to go out and just pick a salad.Our peas did pretty well too, a few died but most of them survived. We planted 2 rows and Josh and I have decided that next year we should up it to 6 or even 8. We all really like the peas and we did so much snacking off of them that we were never able to have them for dinner. I'm finding we could easily keep up with 3x as many peas as we had this year. I think next year we should built a better trellis as well. I put stakes down for them to climb up but only about 1/4 of them really figured it out. I did a lot of tying and a lot of picking up a pea plant in order to find the peas.

The strawberries didn't fruit as much as I could have wished, but they were just planted last summer and I know it can take a while for strawberries to really settle in. And I might have had a lot more then I knew about. I have a strawberry fiend in my midst, after all. Zeke got a good handful every morning and sometimes Josh and I even got one or two well-hidden berries. I think next year will be a big year for strawberries, year 3 is supposed to be full maturity. I also think that there will never be enough, however.

Coming up soon? The tomatoes are up to my waist...they are HUGE. And I've found a few little green fruits starting. The peppers have a few flowers. The plants look small though. I've never grown peppers, so maybe they are supposed to be? I apparently gave them way too much room if this is full size.(tomatoes in back, peppers up front. the seedlings were all evenly spaced, lol)

(a pepper close up)

The green beans looked like they were being eaten up when we left for our vacation, and I had given up on them. They look better now, though also small. I imagined they would be more...bushlike, lol. We will see what happens. Our squash were murdered by a two year old. I was pretty disappointed because I love squash but, oh well. It will be something to enjoy next year :)

I think I will really expand next year. We didnt nearly use up all the room we could have. Everything is really spread out, with a good 7 feet plain left over.

I want to retry squash. And do 1 or 2 zucchinis, some potatoes, maybe watermellon or onion or garlic... I'm glad we started small because I know if I got overwhelmed the whole project would just be over but now I'm looking longingly at what friends are doing...Im talking about you, Ivory.

"The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life". ~Robert Louis Stevenson